


know who your friends are (as you head off to the war)

by cydbys



Category: Chronicles of Narnia - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-26
Updated: 2017-11-26
Packaged: 2019-02-06 23:46:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12828705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cydbys/pseuds/cydbys
Summary: Lucy, of course, is the first to have her powers manifest.





	1. how edmund pevensie grew into his bad reputation

The first to discover their power was, of course, Lucy. She had tripped and scraped her knee on one of their many woodland adventures, and watched in awe as the scrape healed itself. Powers were not impossible, but uncommon enough that her three siblings could tell her (gently was Peter’s way, truthful was Susan’s, and scoffing was Edmund’s) that she had just imagined it. Until, of course, the day came when Peter’s feet lifted from the ground without him realizing until he towered over everyone else. Then, Susan discovered her unnatural penchant for archery after flawlessly hitting target after target at summer camp. 

Edmund was then faced with a crossroad. He had become aware of his powers soon after Lucy had, but there was no way he could talk about them! They were, in a word, weak. He had tried lifting, with his mind, that is, significant objects, like his bed or his nightstand. No luck. Instead, he found he could lift all of the rocks from his childhood collection at once, which was quite the task considering what an avid collector younger him had been. He had, once, looked up from the book he was stressfully studying to see every other book in the room floating in the air. He had kept it up a few moments longer, until Lucy came bursting into the room and they all slammed down. 

By the time he turned 15, he had decided that lifting multiple objects at once was more impressive than lifting one heavier object, anyway. Besides, he had to do something soon. Peter kept giving him these sympathetic looks, and Lucy kept telling him she was sure he would figure it out. Susan, on the other hand, kept giving him these knowing looks, as if she knew he already had his powers but wasn’t ready to share. It wouldn’t surprise him if she did. The two of them had always had a bond that the others didn't understand. From an outsider’s perspective, Susan was frustrated at his immaturity at best and nearly always cross with him at worst. And while both were often true, he understood that a lot of her frustration with him came from two things: one, she believed that he was a better person than he pretended to be (where Peter and Lucy grew angry or hurt at his harsh words, Susan just saw through them) and two, she recognized much of herself in him, especially with how she had been at his age. 

He hadn't revealed his powers to his siblings, yet, when Peter outed his own powers to the whole school. He'd been dealing with his own things, Edmund knows this, but that doesn't stop the sharp annoyance at Peter's lack of self-control. Some pig-brained boy in Peter's class had said something crude about Susan, and before it could escalate into an all out fistfight, Peter was floating. To be fair, Edmund would have done something similar, but that something would certainly not include his secret superpowers. 

That night, as some strange man named Aslan spoke to their mother and Peter about the incident, the three younger Pevensies huddled outside of the door in a vain attempt to eavesdrop. (It was a recruitment, the three knew that easily. Susan faced it with false bravery, and Edmund was as scared of it as Lucy was delighted. Truly, she just wanted to help people.) Susan made tea, and as she handed Edmund his, rolled her eyes and said "Boys." quite disdainfully. He thinks it means something different to each of them, and with a blush rising in his cheeks, thinks Susan realizes that too. He throws Peter half across the room in one of their fights, just a few days later. The strange thing about it is, he never touched him. Peter walks away mid fight, lately a rare occurrence, and places a solemn phone call that sits bitterly with Ed. 

He can hear it now: oh, it turns out the useless Pevensie isn't so useless after all. 

Later, he'll see how a lot of things at this time of his life made him easy to manipulate. It won't matter then, of course, because he sold everything he knew about Aslan's plans, hell, about his own siblings, for the promise of a place in the sun. 

He picks the right side in the end. He becomes a double agent, feeding the White Witch false information and his siblings the real. It gets him tied to a chair, starved, and mentally abused for around two days. He'll look back on that later, and be angry. So, so angry at whoever decided a 15 year old could do such a thing, or deserved such a thing. They make it out in the end, and Lucy heals the rope burn on his wrist and his black eye and his busted lip. Peter hugs him for the first time in years, and something heals itself between them. Perhaps the unity said, “I thought we were different sorts of angry but now I think there is only one sort.” Susan makes him more tea, and brings him books, action and romance and comics and a few self-care ones about the after math of trauma that they won't talk about for a long, long time. 

He's the black sheep now, and he'll always be branded as such. He starts wearing more black and passively allows Susan to teach him how to do eyeliner and ignores Peter's mostly goodhearted jabs about becoming a rebellious teenage stereotype. (He thinks they deserve a little time to just be teenagers, anyway.) 

His attitude doesn’t help matters. He’s harsh, (brutally honest, he once supplied Peter, in the middle of a growing fight) and doesn’t like attention or cameras. Or being asked questions. A man who works for Aslan and is often trying to convince the four of the to be more involved in hero politics had tried to break him of this until he saw that many people ate it up. Being the dark Pevensie had earned him a following just as big as the other three’s. 

Just as the media starts up a ruckus on the morals of the thing (they truly are so terribly young to be heroes, Lucy is hardly even a teenager) in the aftermath of such a battle as their last one, they get sent away. Just like that. 

Boarding school, their mother tells them, her eyes distant and ringed by dark purple skin. She always looks so worried now, and Edmund thinks, selfishly, that at least now he won't have to see that. Face it every day. He still feels to blame for a lot of it, and he isn’t sure that will ever change. 

Peter cries telling her goodbye, and the moment he sees it Edmund lets go of the tiny string of resentment he'd been holding on to. If Peter cares more about his family than his hyper masculine front, Ed can live with the puffed chests and arrogant smirks. 

Who knows, he thinks to himself as he settles back in his seat. Boarding school boys are supposed to be cute.


	2. how edmund pevensie discovered his other power

It had been two years, and Edmund hadn’t used his powers for much more than maneuvering objects midair to make it harder for Susan to hit them. (She'd become quite the school's archery star, which Peter says is cheating and Edmund says is funny and Lucy says is cool.) 

Then, one normal, terror free day, Lucy got called to the office. It's strange for anyone who hears it, because, despite being a committed daydreamer and passionate advocate for justice, everyone knew Lucy Pevensie was a good girl. One by one, her siblings were called to follow. A man told them he had a message from Aslan, and just like that, they were superheroes again. 

Lucy was already overjoyed before it even became official. 

"He couldn't have told us himself?" Peter had asked, equal parts bitter and hopeful. Susan seemed to be more interested in absolutely anything else, but Ed wasn't sure what he thought, just yet. A little bit of him was already resigned to being at the call of adults until he turned 18. He had known something like this would happen. 

It had been two normal years, and then things were back to the way that gave him nightmares he'll probably deal with for the rest of his life. 

There’s a boy, Peter’s age, with dark hair and eyes waiting for them when they get to headquarters. He’s charming- something Ed had learned not to trust, so he determined not to like him immediately. 

He’s a prince, apparently, a fact that Ed was quick to pretend didn’t impress him. 

They began training, with Caspian as a part of the group, as soon as they got there. He must fight with them, they were told, because he personally knows the villain (his uncle) they’re fighting against. 

Peter was, understandably, furiously jealous. 

If you counted all of the minor fights he had gotten into at boarding school and the few beforehand, Caspian was well on his way to personally doubling that list of fights. 

Before, Peter had been the leader. He was the oldest, after all, and at the time, the most qualified. Then, they were told they’re all equals and Peter and Caspian were left to scuffle for the unofficial role. 

If Edmund had been forced to pick a side, he would have to have picked Peter’s. He and Caspian’s late night practices weren’t helping that loyalty too much, though. He knew he needed to train, and not in the bullshit ways the organization had him do it. Sitting in an all white room and told to move the dull knives scattered around into an orderly line just was not enough. He needed to learn to hold his own in a fight. 

“I can just pick you up.” He’d scoffed, the first time Caspian had suggested it. 

“You have to catch me first.” And then it had just become a thing. 

Night practice consisted of: use of the swords both Caspian and Peter were so adamant they train with even though, in Edmund’s opinion, they’re outdated and nearly pointless, creating various scenarios Ed had to work his way out of using his power, and hand to hand combat. 

And there, in that last one, was the problem. 

Edmund had gotten the weakest of the super strength given to the Pevensies. His power relied almost entirely on his mind. Caspian, on the other hand, was about half as strong as he was fast, which meant much, much stronger than Ed. 

Fighting him while only relying on his strength was out of the question, so early on, he’d turned to distractions and mind games. Caspian wasn’t a hard guy to read, and Edmund was already rather good at it. If he concentrated, he could feel what the other was going to do before he even did it. 

He’d gotten so good at it he could almost beat him. 

Sometimes, it was hard to shut it off after they sparred. Caspian was walking him back to his room just like he always did. Edmund could feel him reach for the door into the dorms before he moved, felt him reach into his pocket to silence his phone when it started buzzing, felt him grab Edmund’s wrist and pull him close, chest to chest and face to- wait. None of those things happened, and Caspian said his usual goodnight before turning to leave. Edmund’s lips still stung like he’d acted on those overheard thoughts. 

He laid awake well into the night, mulling it over. Eventually, he neatly divided the situation into two separate catagories of crisis. Crisis one: those thoughts were not Edmund’s, yet he’d felt them. This meant he knew what Caspian was thinking in a way that went deeper than only what his next moves would be. Crisis two: Caspian wanted to kiss him. 

He’d known about his interest in guys for ages, so it wasn’t a sexuality issue. The only other person who knew was Susan, and he had never told her in the first place. It was just a mutual understanding. She just knew, and gave him space to tell them on his own. It was the same as her thing with the cute hacker girl who they often trained with. He knew about it, but never mentioned it, although he figured it was only a secret because Susan relished keeping them. 

The next morning, he asked her about telepathy over breakfast. The two of them always ate breakfast together, a little later than the others (due to Susan taking longer to get ready and Edmund refusing to get up that early, which, of course, left Lucy alone in dealing with the constant disaster that was Peter and Caspian) and it provided them with the perfect opportunity for conversations like this. 

Susan tilted her head in curiosity at the question. “So you feel like you can read minds?” He isn’t sure how quickly she’d come to that accurate conclusion off of his very general question, but he nodded anyway. 

“Telekinesis and telepathy. And here you thought you were the weak one.” 

He made a face he hoped express his mixture of fake and real hurt. 

“Oh, shut up. You know I’ve never thought that. Alright, tell me what I’m thinking about.” 

He closed his eyes and concentrated. A second later, his eyes flew open again. 

“Ew, Susan!” He really didn’t need to know what his sister was heading out to do when they passed each other in the hallway, both sneaking out at night. Or, rather, who she was going to do. 

She laughed uncontrollably. “It’s one of those things, Ed. You try not to think about something and then you can’t help it. Besides, I’m sure it’s similar to whatever Caspian was thinking about you when you read his mind last night.” 

He nearly choked on his orange juice. “Are you sure you’re not the telepathic one?” 

Susan rolled her eyes. “I’m just perceptive. Are you going to tell Aslan?” Really, he got the feeling the man somehow already knew, but he understood what she meant. He could have it added to his training, or keep it a secret. There were pros and cons. This would mean everyone would know his strength, but it also meant Caspian would know. What if he started avoiding Edmund? It’s what Ed would do, in the scenario that the guy he liked suddenly started reading minds. 

That night, Caspian was distracted. Edmund could tell this all day. Their night practice became even more difficult, with Edmund trying not to read his mind for anything more than his next moves. What Caspian was thinking about, him, interfered with every lunge and step and hit. He was so, so close to calling it a night by faking illness and running away to his room when he ended up pinning Caspian down. It hadn’t been hard to do, but it was still exhilarating and rewarding. This didn’t happen often, and just because Ed had a bit of an unfair advantage didn’t mean- and then came the thoughts. They were so loud, it was if Caspian was screaming them. Their position was suggestive enough as it was (Ed straddling his hips, both hands caught and pinned above his head) but the desire in those thoughts alone was overwhelming. 

He wants me to kiss him. It was a common thought, but at that moment, in the dead silence of the gym with Caspian looking up at him like he was waiting for something, it felt doable. He leaned down, slowly closing the inches between them, and that’s when the door burst open. It was Susan, a fact Edmund would forever be thankful for, out of breath and clearly upset. 

“They’re here. Miraz’s army has us surrounded.” 

The battle lasted for hours. In the end, Miraz’s own second in command killed him and asked for this to be the reason they allowed him to live. Ed and Susan stood on one of the hills and looked down over the wreckage of the battlefield. Lucy was busy healing, but Caspian was no where in sight. Peter stumbled to a stop next to them, his feet skidding on rock and dirt. Edmund hardly noticed. 

He realized, as Lucy rushed to meet Aslan, who went to stand over Miraz’s body, that he might never see Caspian again. It was a horrible thought, and only a minute after he’s had it, Peter and Susan do too. 

“Oh, Ed.” Susan’s hand came to rest on his arm. 

“Hey, Lu, have you seen Caspian?” Peter called down as Lucy climbed the hill. 

“No, but Aslan said he already left. He has another mission.” 

“So soon?” Susan asked. 

Lucy shrugged. “He is a prince, after all.” 

“Hardly.” Peter scoffed, back to disliking the other boy after finding out he wasn’t dead. “We did it.” 

The four looked out over the battlefield once again. Edmund thought about how Caspian didn’t even get, or perhaps want, to say goodbye. He finally spoke up. 

“Yes, we did.”


	3. how edmund pevensie caught a break

In the year following the battle against Miraz, some things change and some don’t. Susan and Peter turn eighteen, one after the other, and are sent on a year long series of missions in America. They keep in touch when they can, but Edmund can’t say the same about him and Caspian. He had hardly even heard word of the other boy all year. 

That didn’t mean Edmund didn’t think about him.

There were a few reasons he found himself comparing every other boy he even came close to liking to Caspian. For one, what they had was his first venture into romance, and kind of set a standard despite being short-lived. Also, it was hard to get over someone with absolutely no closure. 

Ed and Lucy had faced the strictest training of their lives over the last year. He had eventually admitted to his telepathy, and the training had begun to accommodate that. Those powers were very nearly mastered. Everything was, with a few exceptions, going well.

That sort of thing never lasts forever. Edmund never expected it to. 

The next crisis to strike requires everyone’s help, including those who hadn’t completed their training. Some of their best were in America, and that left Edmund and Lucy to pick up their sibling’s slack. And Caspian? Well, he makes his reappearance. 

“Three isn’t a team.” Edmund had said, pretending his heart wasn’t beating double time in order to keep up his reputation. He’d gotten Lucy’s sharp elbow in his side for his trouble. 

Caspian has changed, but Edmund supposes he has too. Lucy hugs him immedietly, of course, and he comments on how much she’s grown. He pulls Edmund into a one armed hug. It isn’t enough, but his eyes hardly leave Edmund for the next hour of catching up and debriefing. They don’t get a single moment alone for two days. Everything that happens between them has an audience, and at night, when maybe they could have time to themslevs, they’re far too tired in the aftermath of the day. 

Edmund lets himself listen into Caspian’s mind, just snatches of thoughts, and feels a rush everytime those thoughts are about him.

It isn’t until they’re putting on their armor, keyed up with energy in the face of what could be the biggest battle of their lives, that they are alone. The room is quiet. Edmund, for the first time in his life, can’t stand this sort of solitude. He wants to hear Caspian say something so badly that he almost uses his power. 

The room is big enough that they could be standing where there elbows wouldn’t accidentally brush, but Ed isn’t sure Caspian is doing it on accident. He feels like he’s suffocating. Part of him wishes that they would be interrupted, that something would break the spell over the room. Mostly, he just wishes that all of their wars were over and they could talk.   
Caspian opens his mouth to say something, but stops himself. He lets his hand rest on Ed’s shoulder for a moment, and then he’s gone. Edmund shakes himself out of his trance. There are battles to be fought, after all.   
They win. Edmund had fantasized a moment of triumph, a magical kiss right there on the battlefield. Instead, he got a broken wrist and really dirty clothes. Well, and a half a year break.   
(There have been losses. He stuck close enough by Caspian to know it isn’t him, but there’s still a terrible moment of fear at the end. They don’t see much of each other when the battle is through, and Edmund learns that you aren’t very much in the mood for kissing when there are friends to mourn.)  
They win. Suddenly, it doesn’t mean a thing. Susan calls him that night to say that her and her hacker were running off together, not to look for them, that she couldn’t let herself be part of an organization she saw as corrupt.   
Peter comes home with tired eyes. Lucy says it’s because he’s becoming an adult, but then she’s been told that Susan is still on a mission in America. For all Peter knows, Edmund thinks that too.   
It’s slow, the first month of break. He and Lucy have catching up to do in school, but they’re still expected to train. Eventually, Ed stops showing up to the sessions and Lucy gets back in contact with Tumnus, who takes up her training even though he’s supposedly retired.   
Peter is closer to the two of them than ever, but he can’t fill the hole Susan left. Some days, Edmund thinks she’s selfish, but other days, he understands. He tells Peter that she’d called him, and they tell her the truth together. She’s angrier than they’ve ever seen her. Peter promises to help look for their missing sister, but Edmund can’t. (His therapist asks him why that is, and he doesn’t have an answer.)  
Exactly 41 days after the battle, the last time they’d seen each other, Edmund runs into Caspian. He’d decided to try out a new coffee shop in town to see if it was a good place (read: a place that didn’t have the background music of Peter’s obnoxiously loud work out music and Lucy’s friends obnoxiously loud laughter.) to do schoolwork.   
The last thing he’d expected to see was Caspian, scrolling through his phone while waiting in line. He hadn’t even known they were in the same area. He almost bolts.  
“Ed?” So no bolting then.   
“Caspian.” He tries for a charming smile, but figures it turns out more awkward than anything. Charming was never really his thing, anyway.   
“Let me buy you a coffee.” Against his better judgement, Ed does. They catch up for two hours. Ed isn’t sure he’s ever held a conversation this long, not even with Susan. His paper remains unwritten, but he doesn’t regret it. Especially when Caspian asks, “Same time next week?”   
No, this is one of the few decisions he can say with certainty he will never regret.


	4. epilogue

ONE YEAR LATER

Peter and Caspian still don’t get along. Lucy and Edmund play peacemaker on normal days, but today Lucy is busy finishing up the cookies she’d made him as both a farewell and congratulations gift. This left Ed to roll his eyes at their bickering as they loaded the final boxes unto the truck. Just last month, he had turned eighteen and was presented with the choice to terminate his contract. Now, his superhero days are over. The apartment he and Caspian had picked out was an immense upgrade from the one he’d been living in with Peter and Lucy.   
Lucy has to either wait to turn eighteen or run like Susan had. She couldn’t handle being away from them like that, and besides, Lucy was pretty patient.   
Edmund looks at the empty walls of the apartment and imagines what it will look like in just a few weeks, cluttered with pictures of them and friends and family.  
He gently hangs up the first, of him and Susan years ago, matching freckles and chubby cheeks.   
It feels like the beginning of a million new memories.   
Peter lets himself into their apartment early one morning. Caspian grabs for the bat he keeps under the bed, immedietly believing there’s an intruder, but Ed stops him.   
“Thieves don’t have keys.” He listens for a minute to the footsteps in the kitchen. “It’s just Peter.”  
“Might still need the bat.” Caspian says, but there isn’t too much malice in it. “He can wait a minute more, don’t you think?”  
Progress, Edmund thinks, as he goes to see what his brother wants.  
Peter has poured three cups of coffee, and is already sipping from one, even though it must be hot. A magazine is laying on the counter in front of him.   
It’s the kind of superhero magazine Edmund used to despise. They’re mostly filled with gossip and shallow articles, and neither he nor Peter read it. He doesn’t have to wonder why Peter has it for long.  
There on the cover is, unmistakably, Susan. She doesn’t seem to be trying to hide. The headline reads that she’d been stopped back in London.  
“If she cared about us knowing, she wouldn’t have let herself be seen like this.” Peter is angry, Edmund realizes, and has the same tired look in his eyes like he did when she first ran. He was trying to protect Lucy from a broken heart.  
Two days later, Peter, Lucy, Edmund, and Caspian went to Mrs. Pevensie’s house for dinner. Midway through the night, the doorbell rang.   
Edmund quietly got up to get it, leaving the others to continue their animated retelling of a recent mishap.  
He opened the door and came face to face with Susan.  
As hugs were shared and tears shed, Edmund found himself thinking that he had never been happier.


End file.
